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Average household to save $750 this year from lower gas prices: Energy Dept.

The Energy Department is predicting an average U.S. household will save $750 this year on gasoline costs compared with what was spent in 2014, according to its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook.

With crude prices dropping fast, data from the Energy Information Administration show that weekly retail prices for regular gas averaged $2.14 a gallon as of Jan. 12. Prices haven't been that low since May 2009. For the first quarter, the EIA expects prices paid to average $2.16 a gallon, whereas the estimate for all of 2015 is $2.33 a gallon, which would be down more than $1 from $3.36 a gallon in 2014.

In its first estimates for 2016, the EIA is forecasting a retail price for regular gas of $2.72 a gallon.

Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate, the main oil futures contracts, have lost more than 50% from their highs of only a few months ago. The EIA now believes Brent will average $57.58 a barrel this year, then rise to $75 a barrel in 2016. WTI is estimated at $54.58 this year and $71 next year.

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Price estimates have been declining at a number of Wall Street banks, including a call from Goldman Sachs on Monday that WTI would see the low $40s soon. The stock market has been rattled of late by the oil slide, but for regular Americans savings at the gas station may well mean more spending on other goods and services. In a separate outlook detailed on CNBC.com, an industry analyst put the nation's overall gas savings at more than $100 billion this year.

The EIA, as has been discussed elsewhere, attributed the recent oil price decreases to greater U.S. production, heightened supply in the market and shaky economic outlooks that will keep demand constrained. That said, the "current values of futures and options contracts suggest very high uncertainty in the price outlook," the agency noted.

In December, U.S. crude production averaged about 9.2 million barrels a day. This year, production is estimated at 9.3 million barrels a day. Based on current price projections, the EIA is anticipating 9.5 million barrels a day in 2016, a number that would be the second-highest ever, behind only the output of 1970. That year, the nation produced an average above 9.6 million barrels of oil a day. The department's next outlook is scheduled for release Feb. 11.

WTI futures recently were down 0.7% at $45.77. Brent was around $48.

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